Should employers reward working nights and weekends?

At the close of Apple’s developer conference in June 2019, CEO Tim Cook took time to publicly commend employees for giving up “nights and weekends” to make the company’s progress possible. Most people would nod in agreement; if someone gives up extra time to achieve the goals of a company, they should be rewarded. But others say working extra hours implies either unrealistic expectations from employers or poor time management on the part of employees. In either case, should working longer hours than necessary be a point of praise?

Working late into the evening has a special ring to it. For many, long hours is how you show your devotion to your company and it's goals; you work nights and you work weekends when, technically, you aren't being paid to do so.

When Apple’s Tim Cook applauded his organization for doing this very thing, the Internet spoke up. As one product designer puts it:

Tim Cook’s closing words: Thanks to all the people “giving up nights and weekends”. If this is Apple’s work ethic that’s really a shame

It’s one thing if a company is addressing an emergency situation, but getting ready for a product launch is something that requires months of planning and attention. In other words, it’s a marathon, not a sprint effort to address something that is broken. Another designer adds her perspective:

It's a slippery slope when companies reward employees who choose to work nights and weekends. It tells everyone else in the company that this is exemplary behaviour and they will start feeling pressured to do the same. This is why burnout is such a problem in the tech industry.

When I worked at an ad agency it was *expected* to work late in the evenings, scrap ideas last minute, eat unhealthy food just to stay in the office & work. We didn’t get asked to work on weekends, it was a MUST.

But many employees choose to work long hours. It doesn’t matter that no one asked them—or even rewarded them—to do so. If they love the projects they are working on, continuing to do so in their free time is their prerogative. Employers would be remiss to gloss over this type of behavior; passionate employees have a lot of potential for future contribution.

Health and happiness are individual. If a company runs a way I don’t like, I can leave. 40 hours as “normal” is an arbitrary, made up standard. To each their own.

Others disagree, saying that employers should reward value added, rather than time given. If an employee adds huge value to a company within a 40-hour work week, that is the time for applause—regularly sacrificing time from one's personal life for the sake of their job is not.

When employers reward things like working nights and weekends, they send the message that working long hours is a sign of employees’ devotion to the organization. But that is just not the case.

It’s heart-warming how many people are noting @tim_cook’s celebration of working nights’n’weekends and refusing to applaud extractive sacrifices. Overwork isn’t cool, especially not on a regular, expected, and self-imposed schedule. Deal with a crisis, sure. A release ain’t that.

Some argue that working to your full potential during business hours and beyond is necessary for companies like Apple. If your organization is keeping up with an ever-changing industry, what choice do you have but to expect more out of your people? It’s important for business leaders to acknowledge these sacrifices and show their teams how much the extra work means.

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